[Qaxl]

This is the first in a series of App Requests.

1.) GPS Phone Locator for Lost or Stolen Phones
2.) A Multiformat EBook Reader and/or Comic Book Reader
3.) WiFi Search, with Built-in Speed Test, and Management

These are apps that I would want to have in my next BB10 phone. I would try and lay out the kind of functionality that I would like to see in the requested app, feel free to join in and suggest improvements etc.

I would like if the developers would join in on the discussion and share ideas on what would be the best way to build such an app.
Should you decide to take up development of the said app, I would encourage you to share your progress in this thread and get feedback from the community.
I would also like to encourage multiple developers to take on the project since there are so many ways the same thing can be approached, and the more apps the merrier

I will also put up Polls with each App Request, so the developers can gauge the interest that people show for the said App.


GPS Phone Locator for Lost or Stolen Phones

The Idea
The basic premise of this app is very simple, one does not want to lose their phone. This app would help one find their phone if they ever get separated from it.
I think this will be a 2 part app. One will be an app installed on the phone, and the Second Part will be a website to communicate with the lost phone from any internet connected device.

The Features
I would like to have the communication with the phone divided into two categories depending if you think the phone is Stolen, or if it is Lost.

If it is Lost, the situation is less panicky, one assumes the phone to be in the vicinity and finding it should be fairly simple.

LOST

• Make a very loud noise, even if the phone profile is set to silent.
• Make the Camera LED Light Flash Blink SOS
• Lock the Device and put a message on the Lock Screen to help the finder of the phone contact you. (useful for concert, party etc. where you expect whoever found your phone is nice enough to return it)
• Dial a call to it, and make the phone answer itself automatically and turn on speaker phone to use audio feedback to get an idea where the phone is

If the device has been stolen, then the tracking needs to be done discretely so the thieves do not consider pulling out the battery or something.

STOLEN

• Get a GPS Lock and send the coordinates.
• Get GPS Coordinates periodically to get real time updates.
• Show the Location and Path Travelled on any browser overlayed on any maps service like Google Maps.
• Ability to request a status report including Call Logs, Battery Strength, Cell Signal Strength, GPS Signal Strength, List of Wifi SSIDs available in the area, Wifi connected to and its IP address, Screenshot, Camera Shots Front and Back etc.
• Dial a call to it, and make the phone answer itself automatically and discretely and turn on speaker phone and mute incoming audio to use audio feedback to get an idea where the phone is.
• Log out of every account and every service including emails, social networks, anything at all. (But keep logged into one email service used to contact this app)
• Remotely set-up a blackberry device password and lock the device. ( with the option to not allow device to be wiped after 10 tries )
• Last ditch effort, Send a threatening Homescreen message that says This device has been reported stolen, your location has been sent to the authorities along the route you took to get there and a list of all CCTV cameras on the route to get your description, while you were reading this, a short video from the front and rear cameras has also been forwarded to the authorities, along with an audio recording of the entire time the phone was in your possession. If you do not want to get caught, leave this device out under the open sky (for great GPS) for collection and move away from it, and I won't press any charges against you.

[stilletto]

Wow... Great idea...

100% support this idea on BB10.




Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 using Tapatalk

[Sadsfan]

BlackBerry protect does some of the things you ask for, definit ly 1 and 3 of the lost section. I know you can also locate the phone to a radius of a few metres but never to exactly, rim just need to add these to protect.

[Toodeurep]

Yes, BlackBerry Protect is the app. It is fundamentally exactly what you have listed and just a few tweaks will give you everything you ask for. Actually, there is some functionality in the phone app that allows you to back your device up to BB. Maybe this should be forwarded on to BB...

[jeroen_13]

This feature shouldn't be an app.
It should be baked into the OS.

Why? For the following reasons:

-once you pull out the battery, the 'app' won't work.
-After reinstalling the OS, the 'app' will be gone.


RIM needs to check if the phone is stolen by 'PIN' . The PIN/Serial number can't be changed.

[Sith_Apprentice]

BlackBerry Protect will already do most of this, and is part of the OS.

[magutwit]

BB protect has most of it and more (you can swipe away some of the data, f.e., or add an additional password). I think BB protect should be preinstalled on all phones like BBM, isn't it the case?
Now, I'd like to have these possibilities to delete the media or log out of social network accounts. I hope this service will evolve...


Sent from my BlackBerry using Tapatalk

[Qaxl]

BlackBerry Protect has the right idea, but its functionality is very basic at best, it does a good job of backing up your data, but I wouldn't depend on it for finding my lost phone, and here is why:

There are only 5 options to help find your device and these are very limited in their benefit:

GPS Location: Very primitive GPS assisted location finding at best. Clicking once gets you an approximate location, often it is around 3000 meters accuracy, sadly it doesn't think that u needed more accurate information so it just sits there saying located. Then you click refresh, and it starts searching for satellites from scratch, and because of that sometimes you get lesser accuracy after clicking refresh because it doesn't tell the phone to hold on to the satellites. If u open Google Maps on my device i can get lock to an accuracy of 3 feet, but BB Protect wont get more accurate than 20 meters.
My biggest gripe however is that there is no automatic and real-time updating of location, it doesn't get new coordinates at fixed intervals so it cant tell if its moving or stationary, and in case of movement it cant show the blip moving on the map in real time to get an idea of the direction its headed.
For me a personal issue is that BB Protect uses Bing Maps, and there is absolutely no map data on Bing for my city, however Google Maps can tell of each tiny little street.

Play a Sound: IT does work but out of the 5 times I used it, only once was loud enough to hear over 3 feet away, the rest of the times the sound was tiny and muffled as if being played through the handset speaker, and atleast once, there was no sound at all !!!! I don't know why such a problem should occur but I'm guessing it could be circumvented if it just used the built in music app to playback the loud noise. So basically this feature is unreliable.

Display a Message: This is reliable and always works.

Lock Device: Reliable and always works. However a Locked Device will be wiped after 10 incorrect tries and essentially gives the thieves a brand new phone !! with no more tracking !!! So you lose all your files, you lose your device, and lose the ability to track it down !!

Wipe Device: Didn't try it out.



Ofcourse it would be ideal if all the features i am asking for were part of BB Protect and that BB Protect was baked into the OS, but it isn't so, and besides I think the features I am asking for would never make to anything made by RIM due to privacy concerns.


I believe there is a lot of room for RIM to improve BB Protect, and I also believe that even with an improved BB Protect, there is still a market for an app which can give the rightful owner much greater control over their device from just a web browser and to help track the device quickly and accurately.